


You're Just Too Good To Be True

by avoidantx



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Awkward Tsukishima Kei, Cute Yamaguchi Tadashi, M/M, Mentioned Terushima Yuuji, Romantic Fluff, Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings, tsukkiyama - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29110119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avoidantx/pseuds/avoidantx
Summary: Tsukishima Kei comes to realize he's fallen in love with his best friend Yamaguchi Tadashi and doesn't know how to cope.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 66





	You're Just Too Good To Be True

The sound of the classroom was getting to be too much. Tsukishima had stood it since morning roll, when he had been forced to put away his headphones. He sighed as the teacher droned on about a subject he had already studied the night before, and listlessly took a few notes to look as though he was paying attention, but in reality he was replaying a scene from the day before that had been haunting him. 

There shouldn’t have been anything to set this day apart, aside from the fact that Tsukishima hadn’t even bothered to fake taking notes, and instead was looking out the window. That’s when he saw him. No, that wasn’t quite right. He had seen him plenty of times, they had been friends since childhood, but this time he had seen him in a way that made everything quiet, almost like he was on the moon, looking in on the scene. Tsukishima shook his head back to the present, what a ridiculous thought. It wasn’t like he was doing anything special either. In fact he looked like a complete idiot, rushing around, papers flying up from his arms to frame him in the light like they were destined to create a moment of perfection, hair a mess, stuck up in a way that filtered the sun through it just right… No, he wasn’t thinking about this right now. He better take notes, he might miss something, one can never be too careful when it comes to academics.

Finally, the bell rang and for a dizzying moment there was too much noise, too many people, but then he had his headphones on and all was well. He lay back, staring at the ceiling as he listened, not noticing until he was nearly on top of him that Yamaguchi had arrived. 

“Tsukki!”

He slid his headphones onto his neck and sat up, “Hello, Yamaguchi.”

“Did you understand the English homework?” Yamaguchi slid a chair to the opposite side of Tsukishima’s desk and began laying out his lunch as he spoke.

“Mostly, and you?”

“Eh, I think so. I mostly just looked out the window. Buuut, I saw Daichi and Sugawara walking out of that one corridor together, I think you’re right about them.”

“Probably.”

Tsukishima watched as Yamaguchi leaned down to grab something from his bag, searching for what he had seen the day before. Then Yamaguchi sat up and smiled at him, and frighteningly enough, Tsukishima saw it, more than that, he felt it. It was as if a spell had been put on him simply by his presence, and he leaned forward, trying to satisfy his curiosity… Wait, he stopped himself, curiosity of what? Something wasn’t quite right here, why was he acting like this, it was Yamaguchi he told himself as he pulled away. Just Yamaguchi, who at the moment was looking at him in a very odd way.

“Tsukki?”

Tsukishima tried to act relaxed, what was he talking about? He was relaxed, completely at ease, no reason he should be nervous whatsoever, “Yeah?”

“Uh, I asked you if you wanted some,” Yamaguchi was holding out a small container, “I made some strawberry shortcake last night and just thought… Well it’s your favorite, righ?”

The look in his eyes had Tsukishima captivated, and he had to remember how to speak before he offended Yamaguchi, his friend, “Oh, yeah. Thank you.”

Yamaguchi smiled as Tsukishima took the container from him and sampled it, was he always this…  _ cute _ , no, that was not the word he was looking for. Instead, he was going to focus on this cake, it was positively amazing, of course it was, because so was Yamaguchi. Where were these thoughts coming from? Certainly he couldn’t have fallen for his best friend after seeing him in one certain way on one particular day, no that just wasn’t right. Could it be he had always felt this way about him? He had never actually thought about it, to be honest he hadn’t ever even considered it. Yamaguchi was Yamguchi, his closest friend and if he was being completely honest, only person he cared about. Well, that didn’t necessarily mean he liked him in that way, did it? No, he thought, better to wait it out. Surely this would pass, weren’t people always saying things about teenagers and hormones. He cringed to even think it, but that must be what this was. Yes, he would give it a few days and it would die down.

-

It hadn’t died down. Hell, he couldn’t stop thinking about it at this point. Even volleyball practice was getting nearly unbearable, who knew that someone so sweaty could be so… so attractive, damn it! He had finally admitted it after only four days, he definitely found Yamaguchi attractive and he probably had for years, so why was it manifesting now of all times? Did something change, Tsukishima couldn’t think of anything. In the weeks leading up to it he supposed that he had been proud of Yamaguchi in new ways nearly every game. Even at the training camp-- god it was the training camp. As soon as he thought about that night clearly it all made sense. How ridiculous was this? Was it the moonlight, no that was too cheesy, even for someone as lovestruck as him. Lovestruck? Wait a minute, this seemed to be progressing far too fast. Well, the more he thought about it, the more he was wrong, it was progressing just as you’d expect when someone hung out with their crush nearly every waking hour. He couldn’t tell anyone, unless… Did Yamaguchi like him in the same way? No, that was too perfect a situation, Yamaguchi was too good a person for that, he should just ignore this and continue as if all was well. To be fair everything was well. If he really thought about it, now that he looked for them there were a bountiful amount of times he could admire Yamaguchi without him knowing. Ugh, that sounded creepy like that, all he meant was it seemed far too easy to fall for Yamaguchi when he really thought about it. Even his oddities seemed custom made to draw him in, I mean who in their right mind likes soggy fries? Now that he had committed to this, it seemed only right that he had a crush on Yamaguchi, it was as if the Universe had set it up just so that would happen. Even if he had wanted to, Tsukishima couldn’t have helped falling in love with him. 

-

They were walking home from a practice when it happened. They had gone to the convenience store with some of the team, Daichi and Suga had bought them meat buns in celebration of their upcoming game, and then Yamaguchi and Tsuishima had waved goodbye, walking in the direction of their houses. Yamaguchi had been rambling something about classes, and Tsukishima had been pretending to listen to music. Then Yamaguchi turned towards Tsukishima, almost as if to check as though he was listening. Tsukishima went to take off his headphones, but Yamaguchi was already turning away.

“You never listen to me do you Tsukki?” Tsukishima went to protest, before stopping himself, “Probably for the best on nights like this. You aren’t listening are you?” He waited a moment, and Tsukishima still kept quiet, wondering where this was going, “Good, because you’d probably hate me if you heard this, but…” Now his voice was barely a whisper and Tsukishima silently strained to hear. “You look beautiful in the starlight, well in any light. Not that it matters because you’ll never know, but yeah. You look beautiful all the time Tsukki.”

Tsukishima had to stop walking for a minute, and Yamaguchi continued on for a second, before realizing he was gone. He began to turn and Tsukishima panicked, was this the right time to tell him he had been listening all along and tell him how he could never possibly hate him, or-- Nope, he was going to pretend he was tying his shoe, okay great plan. Yamaguchi looked anxious for a second, before he realized what was happening and relaxed, waiting for him. As he stood, Tsukishima slid his headphones down around his neck.

“Sorry Yamaguchi,” he was trying to keep his voice as even as possible, “Did you say something?”

“Nothing important,” came the cheery reply.

Tsukishima studied his friend as they continued on, how long had he felt this way? How long had Tsukishima been so blind, so inconsiderate? He could kick himself. He watched Yamaguchi wave goodbye as they reached his house, and he returned the gesture, smiling as Yamaguchi yelled goodnight as he walked away. Why hadn’t he just admitted he had heard it? The feelings were mutual, but he was just… Scared. Why was he always such a coward when it came to things like this? He thought he had gotten over it, but here he was stuck in a perfectly agreeable situation and somehow he had squandered it. He walked home, angry at himself. Barely able to remember anything from the day aside from Yamaguchi’s words, he walked up to his room in a state of confusion. He sat on his bed, toying with his phone and pondering what in the world he should do. He managed to open the messaging app, and tap on Yamaguchi’s contact, before the ping of an oncoming message nearly startled him enough to drop the device.

**Tsukki! There’s a new exhibit at a nearby museum, do you want to go?**

Tsukishima nearly shook his head in disbelief at his luck, and typed out a hasty reply.

**Sure, does this weekend work?**

**Absolutely. We can plan more in class tomorrow!**

Tsukishima fell back onto his bed, smiling like an idiot. How pathetic was he? But, he had made up his mind on what he had to do. He went to get ready for bed, at ease for the first time in days.

-

Tsukishima woke up the morning of their date-- no that’s not what this was. Well, not yet at least, but things could change. He checked the time, an hour to go until Yamaguchi arrived. Plenty of time.

-

Or so he had thought. Forty-five minutes later and he still hadn’t figured out what to wear. Why was he being so weird about this? He got dressed all the time, hell he went out with Yamaguchi all the time, so what was different. He sighed, of course it was different. He knew what Yamaguchi had said, but still, he needed to make the extra effort because Yamaguchi was just so-- so… radiant! That was the word, Yamaguchi was as radiant as ever and Tsukishima was well… not. He heard a ping from his phone.

**Almost there!**

Come on Tsukishima think of something, oh! Where was it, come on… There! It wasn’t exactly the fanciest outfit, just a sweater and some jeans, but he distinctly remembered Yamaguchi had said he looked handsome in it. It might have just been a friendly compliment on new clothes, but it was the only thing he had. By the time he had changed, and checked his hair in the bathroom mirror, goodness when was the last time he had done that of all things? His mom was yelling that Yamaguchi was here to pick him up. He grabbed his wallet and phone, before rushing downstairs and throwing on some sneakers.

“Bye mom! I should be back later this evening.”

He opened the door and saw Yamaguchi waiting on the stoop. He stood up and turned as Tsukishima closed the door, and oh dear. He looked... _ cute _ . Yes, he looked heart-wrenchingly cute Tsukishima had to admit. Yamaguchi beamed at the sight of him.

“You look handsome Tsukki!” Tsukishima mentally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thanks, uh. You look nice too,” he was not blushing, not in any way, shape or form, but Yamaguchi looked so cute in cropped trousers and a oversized green sweater, it fit him almost too well.

Yamaguchi began leading the way, chattering excitedly, “And Tsukki they have this dinosaur exhibit you might like. I know you say you grew out of that, but I figured it would still be fun. Oh, and there’s this new planetarium thing that we should check out!” 

Tsukishima listened, smiling softly as he watched Yamaguchi talk with his hands, trying to paint pictures in the sky. It was probably times like this that he had first begun falling for Yamaguchi. His smile, and bouncing hair, paired with the enthusiastic hand motions he only did when he was really excited. Yep, Tsukishima had more than made up his mind, it was only a matter of waiting for the right moment. Of course, there was always the chance that he screwed up, or the right moment never came, or Yamaguchi hadn’t actually meant what he said a few days ago, but he wanted to believe in the possibility of someone so wonderful loving him back. 

-

They were halfway through the dinosaur exhibit, and Tsukishima was carefully letting most of the fries he had bought when they had gotten lunch go soggy, when he heard Yamaguchi gasp next to him. He looked across the Stegosaurus display they were currently at and puzzled over the sight of a blonde boy waving at them with a smile.

“Terushima!” Yamaguchi yelled, waving back.

“Yamaguchi,” the boy greeted as he walked over towards them, “and… Sorry what was your name?”

Tsukishima frowned, puzzling over the sudden appearance of the Johzenji captain, “Tsukishima.”

His frown deepened as Terushima hugged Yamaguchi, and began asking how he’d been. How in the world had Terushima decided to first, come to a museum of all places, and second come on today of all days. The Universe was obviously fed up with how he had decided to approach the more than ideal circumstances he had been put in. He sighed, and resigned himself to walking behind the excitable Terushima, and the chattering Yamaguchi. From this he ascertained that Terushima was here for an extra credit assignment- lucky him- and that Yamaguchi and he had accidentally ran into each other once before. Wait, what?

Tsukishima cut into their current conversation, disregarding the look Yamaguchi gave him, “So how’d you guys meet before? After our match that is.”

Terushima grinned, “Oh! We were both at a concert, and ended up hanging out the entire night!”

Tsukishima was confused, when had Yamaguchi gone to a concert without him? Not that it was any of his business, but still, “What band?”

Yamaguchi grinned with Terushima, “Polkadot Stingray! Remember Tsukki, you couldn’t make it because you were out of town.”

Tsukishima did remember, “Terushima, you like that band?”

“Yeah! Our manager recommended it, and surprisingly enough I did like it. Yamaguchi and I actually have a lot of bands in common y’know.”

“Oddly enough,” Tsukishima wasn’t liking how close Terushima seemed with Yamaguchi, but maybe he was just like this all the time.

The Johzenji captain was pretty social, but he couldn’t help but remember how suddenly and determinedly he had tried to pursue Kiyoko, much to the disdain of Tanaka. He would have to keep his guard up. Tsukishima noticed Yamaguchi staring at him as the trio continued and he shrugged, offering him his soggy fries as an apology for being rude. Yamaguchi took them, still trying to look stern, making Tsukishima laugh a bit once the former had turned back to Terushima. He trailed behind them for a while longer, not liking how uncomfortably like a third wheel he felt, before Yamaguchi excused himself to the bathroom and he was left with Terushima. The two stood awkwardly for a bit before Terushima turned to him with a grin.

“So, are you guys dating or what?”

Tsukishima recoiled, taken aback by the suddenness of the question, “Uh. No, we’re not,”  _ Not yet _ he wanted to add, but didn’t. Instead, he watched for the blonde’s reaction.

His grin seemed to widen and he toyed with one of his earrings, “Nice. You know, cute normally isn’t my type, but…” He trailed off as he felt Tsukishima’s glare before he saw it. “Woah there tiger, I’m just saying we have a lot in common already, and I like concert dates. Can you blame me?”

Tsukishima couldn’t say he did, but even in their match he had never been this annoyed by this flashy, unnecessarily hot-blooded presence, “Well. Yamaguchi can make his own decisions, so I’m not one to stop you.”

_ Why was he such a coward? _

Terushima watched him for a bit, before smiling again, “Well in that case I think I’ll ask him how he feels about a date when he gets back.”

This guy was something else, asking someone on a date when they’re already hanging out with another person? Tsukishima ground his teeth, but stayed silent, not wanting to give himself away more than he already had. Yamaguchi came back a few seconds later, and Tsukishima steeled himself for the inevitable. He eyed Terushima carefully as he suggested they walk to another exhibit, ignoring him when the blond grinned back at him. It was almost like he was taunting him with the way he could make Yamaguchi laugh at something he said, or the way he grabbed his hand to pull him towards a display. Tsukishima was nearly at his wits end when he lost the two of them in a crowd, only to walk up behind them as Terushima was asking Yamaguchi out.

“So what do you say? I have tickets for two, next week on Saturday.”

Yamaguchi grinned, “Sure! Where should we meet up?”

Tsukishima stopped and let the two of them walk along without him, as he went to sit underneath a sign advertising the new planetarium exhibit. He wished he had brought his headphones, he needed to block everything out, to forget what had just transpired without him doing anything about it. He sighed and tried very hard not to cry as he leaned back against the wall, wishing he had been a little bit more assertive, a little bit more confident, a little bit more attractive than that damn Terushima with his damn tongue piercing, of all things. He sat there for a good five minutes before he heard someone calling his name over the sounds of the museum patrons.

“Tsukki! Tsukki, where are you! Excuse me, have you seen a very tall, blonde man with glasses? Yes, okay thank you! Tsukki!”

Tsukishima tried to make himself stand, or even call out Yamaguchi’s name, but knew he couldn’t without cracking completely, spilling open on the tile floor as he tried to face the facts. He tried to tell himself to stop being so overdramatic, but really the shattered hope of a chance at loving the only person he cared about was too much to bear sitting in this crowded museum. No one seemed to notice his universe splitting open around him and he put his elbows on his knees. Hiding his face as he felt the tears well up, even as he heard Yamaguchi call his name yet again. Was it because he was too weak, because he wasn’t good enough for Yamaguchi that things ended up like this? He tried to tell himself that Yamaguchi was probably off better this way, but his own selfishness just had to butt in and remind him of his own feelings. Then there was someone kneeling in front of him, trying to get his attention. They were wearing an oversized green sweater, and their callused hands were grabbing his knees.

“Tsukki? Hey, Tsukki what’s wrong?”

“Tsukishima man, you okay? Hey Yamaguchi, how about you go get him some water?”

“Tsukki, I’m going to be right back okay? I'll come back with some water alright, and then we can leave if you want,” Tsukishima just nodded in acknowledgement, still trying to hold what little he had left of himself together.

He looked at the floor for a while longer, watching it blur as his tears pooled up, and dropped to the ground.

“Tsukishima, um. Oh god man, I didn’t think you’d take it this hard, uh… I--”

“Tsukki! Here, have some water, please?”

Tsukishima sat up slightly, wiping his glasses on his sweater as he tried to act as though nothing had happened, despite the lump in his throat, “Thanks.”

“What happened Tsukki?”

“Nothing, I um just got a little overwhelmed.”

“I have earbuds if you want, they’re not as cool as your headphones, but they’d still work the same.”

Tsukishima nearly started crying again at this, who else in the world knew him well enough to know exactly what set him off and what he needed during times like this? Instead he just shook his head, drinking from the paper cup Yamaguchi handed him. 

“I should uh, I should probably get going. I don’t want to ruin the rest of your day,” He nodded at Terushima, who still looked as though he had something he desperately needed to say, “Anyway, you guys have fun. See you in class Yamaguchi.”

He rose and started to walk away even as Yamaguchi protested. Terushima pulled Yamaguchi aside, but Tsukishima was too exhausted to even try and figure out what was happening. Before he could get completely out of earshot however, he heard Yamaguchi.

“You what! Why would you suggest,Terushima you go bring him back right now and tell him the truth!”

Tsukishima stopped as he heard Terushima run up behind him, the wheels in his addled mind trying to decipher what he had heard.

“Hey, um Tsukishima?”

He turned.

“You know how I was uh… How I was talking about asking out Yamaguchi?”

Tsukishima nodded.

“I uh, I never actually did.”

“What.”

“Well you see, technically I had already asked him at the concert we were talking about.

“Oh, I see.”

“No! I mean, no you don’t. He uh… He rejected me.

Tsukishima had to process that for a minute, “He… rejected you?”

“Yeah… He said he already had someone he was after and well then I saw you two together and made assumptions and decided to mess with you. Just a little! Just to see if you were the guy he was talking about, and uh well I guess you overheard our plans to hang out and made some assumptions of your own.”

Tsukishima was openly glaring at Terushima now, and the smaller boy cringed.

“I see.”

“Well, I mean based off of your original reaction I didn’t think you were the one! To be fair you have a wicked poker face, and well. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to go that far. But, now I’ve ruined your guys’ day…”

“No, really?”

“I’m sorry, here let me just make it up to you okay! When you were gone Yamaguchi kept gushing about the new exhibit, so let me treat you guys to a couple tickets, and I’ll go on my merry way okay?”

“Okay.”

“And, listen, I don’t think Yamaguchi knows you uh, you like him yet. He was just worried that you were stressed out or something, so… No hard feelings?”

“Maybe, the tickets are a start,” Tsukishima smirked as Terushima nodded and all but ran to go buy tickets.

By the time he had come back, Tsukishima had finally formulated a game plan. Terushima handed him the tickets and made some joke, before jogging off to leave him alone. Tsukishima sighed as he watched him go, some people were just born hotblooded idiots, it wasn’t their fault. He shook his head and turned to look for Yamaguchi, who was seated in the same spot he had been a few minutes ago. He leaped up when he saw Tsukishima, rushing towards him.

“Sorry Tsukki! I think Terushima was just trying to be funny. Are you feeling better? The crowd has thinned out quite a bit, but we can still go home right now.” 

“No, I’m fine thanks. We still have one more exhibit left, right? We were saving the best for last,” Tsukishima displayed the tickets Terushima had bought as penance with relish.

“Oh yeah! Just that one and we can go home, okay.”

“If you want,” Tsukishima took Yamaguchi’s hand, startling him a bit as he led them towards the entrance of the planetarium exhibit.

They entered the darkened theater a few minutes before the show began, filing in with other guests, and finding a couple of seats near the wall, away from most of the other patrons. Yamaguchi whispered excitedly about the program as Tsukishima smiled next to him. The program began, and a hush fell over the audience as the host began describing planets and stars that were light years away, as the domed screen displayed one after the other, making them feel like they were flying through the stars to visit each one. Tsukishima looked over at Yamaguchi as the screen zoomed out to show the Milky Way in all its glory, the smaller boy’s eyes reflecting the stars, almost as if they were actually emanating from him. Tsukishima smiled before leaning over.

“I think you look beautiful in the starlight too,” he whispered.

Yamaguchi’s eyes widened as he turned to face him, blushing as Tsukishima continued, “Well in any light really, especially the sunlight.”

“Tsukki?”

“I like you Yamaguchi, I really, really like you.”

“I- I like you too Tsukki.”

Someone in front of the two made a shushing noise, but they were too distracted to care.

“Uh, Yamaguchi?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I kiss you?”

The smaller boy simply nodded, eyes wide as if he still couldn’t believe this was happening, and Tsukishima gently leaned in. The kiss was short, but Tsukishima felt as though there was lightning striking between them in this dark theater as the stars rotated above in a dizzying display of light, reflecting in his best friend’s eyes.

-

Tsukishima walked Yamaguchi to his door that evening, laughing as he pulled him into the cover of his doorway for ‘just one more kiss for the road’. He leant down, and lightning danced again as the sun set, lighting everything in a soft orange glow.

“Bye Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said softly as they parted.

“See you Monday,” replied Tsukishima.

“How about tomorrow?’

“Deal.”

“See you then.”

“See you.”

Tsukishima walked away, turning to wave at Yamaguchi one last time, before walking home with a smile on his lips.


End file.
